Contents

The story of Kilwa begins around 960-1000 AD.[3] According to legend, Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi was one of seven sons of a ruler of Shiraz, Persia, his mother an Abyssinian slave. Upon his father's death, Ali was driven out of his inheritance by his brothers.[4] Setting sail out of Hormuz, Ali ibn al-Hassan, his household and a small group of followers first made their way to Mogadishu, the main commercial city of the East African coast. However, Ali failed to get along with the city's Somali elite and he was soon driven out of that city as well.

Steering down the African coast, Ali is said to have purchased the island of Kilwa from the local Bantu inhabitants. According to one chronicle (Strong, 1895), Kilwa was originally owned by a mainland Bantu king 'Almuli' and connected by a small land bridge to the mainland that appeared in low tide, the king agreed to sell it to Ali ibn al-Hassan for as much colored cloth as could cover the circumference of the island. But when the king later changed his mind, and tried to take it back, the Persians had dug up the land bridge, and Kilwa was now an island.

Rather than being a literal retelling of events, this legendary history serves to legitimize the dynasty through ties to Islam. According to Horton and Middleman, "the descent from a noble Islamic family and an Abyssinian (Ethiopian) slave 'explains' why the rulers were both black but also with royal Muslim descent; the giving of cloth to the ruler made him 'civilized' and so his daughter became marriageable."[5]

Kilwa's fortuitous position made it a much better East African trade center than Mogadishu, it quickly began to attract many merchants and immigrants from further north, including Persia and Arabia. In just a few years, the city was big enough to establish a satellite settlement at nearby Mafia Island.

Kilwa's emergence as a commercial center challenged the dominance once held by Mogadishu over the East African coast. Suleiman Hassan, the ninth successor of Ali (and 12th ruler of Kilwa, c. 1178-1195), wrested control of the southerly city of Sofala. Wealthy Sofala was the principal entrepot for the gold and ivory trade with Great Zimbabwe and Monomatapa in the interior. The acquisition of Sofala brought a windfall of gold revenues to the Kilwa Sultans, which allowed them to finance their expansion and extend their powers all along the East African coast.

Kilwa also claimed lordship across the channel over the myriad of small trading posts scattered on the coast of Madagascar (then known by its Arabic name of Island of the Moon). To the north, Kilwa's power was checked by the independent Somali city-states of Barawa (a self-ruling aristocratic republic) and Mogadishu (the once-dominant city, Kilwa's main rival). To the south, Kilwa's reach extended as far as Cape Correntes, below which merchant ships did not usually dare sail.[7]

While a single figure, the Sultan of Kilwa, stood at the top of the hierarchy, the Kilwa Sultanate was not a centralized state, it was more a confederation of commercial cities, each with its own internal elite, merchant communities and trade connections. The Sultan might appoint a governor or overseer, but even his authority was not consistent - in some places (e.g. outposts like Mozambique Island) he was a true governor in the Sultan's name, whereas in more established cities like Sofala his powers were much more limited, more akin to an ambassador to the city, than its governor.

Despite its origin as a Persian colony, extensive inter-marriage and conversion of local Bantu inhabitants and later Arab immigration turned the Kilwa Sultanate into a veritable melting pot, ethnically indifferentiable from the mainland, the mixture of Perso-Arab and Bantu cultures is credited for creating a distinctive East African culture and language known today as Swahili (literally, 'coast-dwellers').[8] Nonetheless, the Muslims of Kilwa (whatever their ethnicity) would often refer to themselves generally as Shirazi or Arabs, and to the unconverted Bantu peoples of the mainland as Zanj or Khaffirs ('infidels').

The Kilwa Sultanate was almost wholly dependent on external commerce. Effectively, it was a confederation of urban settlements, and there was little or no agriculture carried on within the boundaries of the sultanate. Grains (principally millet and rice), meats (cattle, poultry) and other necessary supplies to feed the large city populations had to be purchased from the Bantu peoples of the interior. Kilwan traders from the coast encouraged the development of market towns in the Bantu-dominated highlands of what are now Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The Kilwan mode of living was as middlemen traders, importing manufactured goods (cloth, etc.) from Arabia and India, which were then swapped in the highland market towns for Bantu-produced agricultural commodities (grain, meats) for their own subsistence and precious raw materials (gold, ivory, etc.) which they would export back to Asia.[9]

The exception was the coconut palm tree. Grown all along the coast, the coconut palm was the mainstay of Kilwan life in every way - not only for the fruit, but also for timber, thatching and weaving. Kilwan merchant ships - from the large lateen-rigged dhows that plied the open oceans to the small zambucs used for local transit - were usually built from the split trunks of coconut palm wood, their sails made from coconut leaf matting and the ships held together by coconut coir.

The Kilwa Sultanate conducted extensive trade with Arabia, Persia, and across the Indian Ocean, to India itself. Kilwan ships made use of the seasonal monsoon winds to sail across to India in the summer, and back to Africa in the winter. Kilwan pilots had a reputation for extraordinary sailing accuracy, the Portuguese marveled at their navigational instruments, particularly their latitude staves, which they considered superior to their own.

Nonetheless, the coir-sewn Kilwan ships were not seaworthy enough to brave the treacherous waters and unpredictable violent gusts around Cape Correntes, so the entire region south of that point was rarely sailed by Kilwan merchants. Inhambane was the most southerly settlement that can be considered part of the Kilwan trading empire.

In its later years, the Sultans of Kilwa began falling into the hands of their ambitious ministers (viziers and emirs), who played the roles of kingmakers, and de facto rulers, and occasionally tried to foist themselves (or one of their family members) on the throne, in competition with the royal dynasty. The most successful was probably Emir Muhammad Kiwabi, who ruled Kilwa for nearly two decades through several sultans, including himself at one point.

Throughout his long 'reign', Emir Muhammad fought an on-again and off-again battle with his nephew, Hassan ibn Suleiman (son of an earlier vizier). Muhammad had, in fact, tried to install Hassan as sultan a couple of times, but it met tremendous resistance from the population of Kilwa. Eventually, Emir Muhammad decided that, in the interests of constitutional propriety and civic peace, Kilwa sultans should always come from the royal dynasty, not families of viziers. Muhammad held that line more-or-less down to the end, thwarting Hassan's ambitions.

The last sultan installed by Emir Muhammad before his death was the royal prince al-Fudail ibn Suleiman in 1495, the man who succeeded to Muhammad's post, Emir Ibrahim (known as Mir Habrahemo in Barros, Abraemo in Goes), helped al-Fudail crush the ambitious Hassan once and for all in a great battle outside Kilwa. But it was not long after this battle that Emir Ibrahim is said to have betrayed and murdered sultan al-Fudail. Rather than declare himself sultan, Ibrahim took power merely with the title of emir, and claimed to be exercising rule in the name of a son of an earlier sultan Suleiman (ibn Muhammad?) of the old royal dynasty. That no one had seen or heard of this absent prince for years was quite convenient for Emir Ibrahim.

Emir Ibrahim's usurpation was met with shock not only in Kilwa, but in the vassal cities as well. Emir Muhammad had (belatedly) recognized the importance of constitutional propriety for peace in the Kilwa Sultanate. Emir Ibrahim's murderous coup had run roughshod over it. Most of the local governors of the Kilwa vassal cities, many who were either relatives or had owed their positions to Emir Muhammad and the royal dynasty, refused to acknowledge the usurpation of Emir Ibrahim, and began charting an independent course for their own city-states, the writ of Emir Ibrahim probably only covered the city of Kilwa itself and possibly Mozambique Island.[10]

This was more or less the condition of the Kilwa Sultanate when the Portuguese arrived.

Portuguese scout Pêro da Covilhã, disguised as an Arab merchant, had travelled the length of the Kilwa Sultanate in 1489-90, and visited the ports of Malindi, Kilwa and Sofala, and delivered his scouting report back to Lisbon, describing the condition of the Kilwa Sultanate in quite some detail, the first Portuguese ships, under Vasco da Gama, on their way to India, reached the sultanate in 1497. Gama made contact with the Kilwa vassals of Mozambique, Mombassa and Malindi, seeking to secure their cooperation as staging posts for the Portuguese India Armadas.

The well-armed Fourth Armada of 1502, under Vasco da Gama again, came in a more mean-spirited mood, indisposed to take no for an answer. Having secured separate treaties with Malindi, Mozambique and all-important Sofala, the Portuguese brought their menacing fleet to bear on Kilwa itself, and extorted a sizeable tribute from emir Ibrahim.

Some have speculated whether Emir Ibrahim missed a golden opportunity to restore his fortunes, that had a treaty with Cabral been reached back in 1500, he might have secured the assistance of the Portuguese navy in bringing the half-independent vassals back under his sway, at least one Kilwan nobleman, a certain Muhammad ibn Rukn ad Din (known to the Portuguese as Muhammad Arcone), certainly advised Emir Ibrahim to strike up an alliance with the Portuguese (and for his pains, was given up as a hostage to the Portuguese by the Emir, who then refused ransom him back - allowing him to be subjected to Gama's wrath.)

As it turns out, the vassals used the Portuguese, one by one, to secure their permanent break from the Sultanate, the ruler of Malindi was the first to embrace the Portuguese, forging an alliance in 1497 (largely to be directed against Mombassa). After Emir Ibrahim's coup, it was certainly not hard to persuade the ruling sheikh Isuf of Sofala (Yçuf in Barros, Çufe in Goes) (apparently a nephew of the late Emir Muhammad) to break away. He signed a treaty with the Portuguese in 1502, and followed it up by allowing the construction of a Portuguese factory and fort in Sofala in 1505.

It was in 1505 that Francisco de Almeida brought his fleet into the harbor of Kilwa, and landed some 500 Portuguese soldiers to drive Emir Ibrahim out of the city. Almeida installed the aforementioned Muhammad Arcone on the throne, as a Portuguese vassal. Remembering constitutional proprieties, Arcone insisted that Micante, the son of the late sultan al-Fudail be his designated successor, the Portuguese erected a fortress (Fort Santiago) on Kilwa and left a garrison behind, under the command of Pedro Ferreira Fogaça to keep an eye on things.

Portuguese rule was not very welcome. Particularly grating was the imposition of Portuguese Mercantilist laws on the sultanate, forbidding all but Portuguese ships to carry trade to the principal coastal towns - essentially putting many leading Kilwan merchants out of business.

The Portuguese did not stay very long; in May, 1506, Muhammad Arcone was lured and assassinated by the sheikh of Tirendicunde (a relative of Emir Ibrahim). As per the pre-arranged succession rule, Micante ascended to the throne, but Fogaça, seeing that Micante's ascension was supported by the old faction of Emir Ibrahim, concluded he would not do as a Portuguese puppet. Consequently, he deposed Micante and installed Hussein ibn Muhammad, a son of Arcone, as the new sultan.

Chaos broke out in the city of Kilwa. Partisans of Micante (& Emir Ibrahim) seized control of much of the city, driving sultan Hussein (and the partisans of Arcone) to seek refuge by the Portuguese Fort Santiago. Street fighting and soon fires broke out; in the chaos, streams of Kilwan residents fled the city, leaving it practically deserted, save for a handful of roving partisan gangs and the terrified Portuguese garrison.

Hearing of the Kilwan chaos all the way in India, the Portuguese vice-roy Almeida dispatched a magistrate Nuno Vaz Pereira, to inquire into the matter. Arriving in late 1506, Pereira convened the competing sultans Micante and Hussein, and asked them present their cases. Pereira ruled in favor of Hussein, confirming him as sultan, but softened the blow by relieving the unpopular commander Fogaça and lifting the mercantilist restrictions on Kilwa shipping.

The Kilwan refugees returned and a modicum of peace resumed, but only briefly, for Hussein put it in his head to lead the Kilwan army against Tirendicunde, to avenge his father's murder. The town was brutally sacked, and numerous prisoners taken. Hussein then dispatched emissaries to all the vassal cities of the Kilwa Sultanate, ordering them to return to obedience, or else meet the same fate.

The chronology of rulers of the Kilwa Sultanate is reported in a chronicle translated into Portuguese in the 16th century, and recorded by the chronicler João de Barros.[11] There is another surviving chronicle by an unknown author, written in the early 16th century, and compiled in 1862 by (or for) sheikh Moheddin (Majid?) of Zanzibar.[12] The Barros and Zanzibar chronicles are not always in concordance with each other, the following follows Barros in its outlines, but fills in details from the Zanzibar chronicle. Alternate spellings and nicknames, mainly given in Barros's chronicle, are in italics. Dates are approximate years of ascension.[13]

3. (996) Ali ibn Bashat (Ali Busoloquete, nephew or cousin of previous) - elected by Kilwa colonists. He was the son of Bashat ibn al-Hassan, the brother of sultan Ali ibn al-Hassan; Bashat had been appointed by his brother as the first ruler of Mafia Island. Bashat's son Ali ruled Kilwa for four and a half years.

4. (c. 1001)[15] Dawud ibn Ali (son of previous) - deposed after four years by Matata Mandalima, king of the Changa/Xanga.[16] Dawud fled to Mafia island, where he died.

5. (c. 1005) Khalid ibn Bakr (Hale Bonebaquer; said to be nephew of Matata Mandalima), installed as ruler of Kilwa by the Changa. Ruled only two years, deposed in uprising by Persian colonists.[17]

10. (1129)[20] Suleiman (patronym unclear, "of royal lineage") - deposed and beheaded by people of Kilwa after only two years.

11. (1131) Dawud ibn Suleiman (son of previous) made his original career and fortune in Sofala, before being recalled to Kilwa to replace his father. Ruled 40 years.

12.(1170) Suleiman ibn al-Hassan ibn Dawud (Soleiman Hacen, son of ninth sultan given above), one of the greatest of Kilwa sultans, credited for conquering much of the Swahili Coast, bringing Sofala, Pemba, Zanzibar and portions of the mainland under Kilwa's rule;[21] responsible for erecting many buildings in Kilwa itself, including its stone fortress and palaces, transforming the city into a veritable metropolis. Ruled 18 years.

20. (1294) Suleiman ibn Hassan (son of previous) - ruled 14 years; murdered by conspirators upon leaving a mosque. Partisans proclaimed his son Hassan ibn Suleiman ruler, but as he was on pilgrimage in Mecca at the time, the throne was temporarily passed to Hassan's brother Dawud.

21.(1308) Daud ibn Suleiman (son of previous) - ruled 2 years in name of his brother Hassan. Stepped down voluntarily on Hassan's return from Mecca.

31. (1421) Suleiman ibn Muhammad (son of previous) - ruled 22 years. Died without heirs. Said to have rebuilt the mosque of Kilwa [26]

32. (1442) Ismail ibn Hussein (uncle of previous) - ruled 14 years. Challenged by pretender Sa'id ibn Hassan, who secured the support of Hassan ibn Abu Bakr, ruler of Zanzibar, the Zanzibaris assembled a coalition to seize Kilwa by force. But Ismail's ministers, vizier Suleiman and Emir Muhammad managed to bribe the key organizer of the expedition, who withdrew the Zanzibari troops and left pretender Sa'id stranded on the beach of Kilwa with only a small body of attendants, although pardoned by Ismail, Sa'id went into hiding.

33. (1454) vizier Suleiman (vizier of previous) At death of sultan Ismail, in the first known usurpation by ministers, the vizier Suleiman and Emir Muhammad al-Mazlum launched a coup and seized power together, with Suleiman declaring himself Sultan. However, popular opinion was strongly against the vizier, so he decided to pass the throne over to the more popular Emir Muhammad.

34. (1454) Muhammad ibn al-Hussein ibn Muhammad ibn Suleiman al-Mazlum ('Emir Muhammad', noble co-conspirator with previous) According to Zanzibar chronicle, after the death of vizier Suleiman, Muhammad appointed the old pretender Sa'id ibn Hassan to the post as his own vizier. Muhammad died shortly after. Reigned for less than a year.(deposed, according to Barros).

35 (1455) Ahmad ibn Suleiman (son of the late vizier?), deposed within a year by partisans of the old royal family. (Barros omits Ahmad, says the partisans deposed Muhammad directly).

37. (1466) Sa'id ibn al-Hassan/Hussein (son of previous, according to Barros; same old pretender (cf.32nd) according to Zanzibar chronicle) - ruled 10 years, Upon his death, the Kilwa Sultanate fell into disarray. There was another ministerial coup d'état.

38. (1476) Suleiman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ('Vizier Suleiman') vizier seized throne after death of Sa'id, declared himself sultan and elevated his own brother, Muhammad Kiwabi, to the dignity of emir. But vizier-turned-sultan Suleiman's rule lasted little over a year.

39. (1477) Abdullah ibn al-Hassan (brother of 37th sultan Sa'id) elevated by people of Kilwa against usurping vizier Suleiman. Ruled one and half years.

40. (1478) Ali ibn Hassan (brother of previous). Ruled 1.5 years. Upon his death, Emir Muhammad Kiwabi (brother of the late vizier Suleiman) seized power, and installed his nephew al-Hassan as sultan.

41 (1479) al-Hassan ibn Suleiman (son of vizier Suleiman), first time, installed by his uncle, Emir Muhammad. But al-Hassan proved an unpopular sultan and was deposed by his own uncle after 6 years.

42. (1485) Sabhat ibn Muhammad ibn Suleiman ('Xumbo', a scion of royal lineage, son of 31st sultan, al-Adil) installed by Emir Muhammad, after popular opposition to his first choice al-Hassan. Ruled one year, then died. According to Zanzibar chronicle, Emir Muhammad tried to install his nephew al-Hassan again.

43. (1486) al-Hassan ibn Suleiman (second time) installed by uncle Emir Muhammad once again, but popular opposition proved too strong. Emir Muhammad decided to depose al-Hassan once again and look for a suitable sultan from the royal dynasty.

44. (1490) Ibrahim ibn Muhammad (brother of Sabhat, another son of al-Adil) installed by Emir Muhammad to replace his nephew al-Hassan. But the deposed al-Hassan ibn Suleiman launched a coup attempt to depose Ibrahim, that resulted in quite some bloodshed; in the end, al-Hassan's ambitions were foiled by his uncle Emir Muhammad, who, seeking to restore order, declared unambiguously that Ibrahim, a descendant of kings, had precedence over al-Hassan, who was only of a family of viziers. al-Hassan driven into exile on the mainland. Ibrahim ruled for two years, until Emir Muhammad decided to depose him himself.[27]

45. (1495) Muhammad ibn Kiwab ('Emir Muhammad Kiwabi', the powerful emir) declared himself sultan, only very briefly, probably just to show he can or to satisfy his curiosity or perhaps just to forestall a renewed bid by his exiled nephew al-Hassan while he sorted through other candidates. In any case, Muhammad abdicated soon after, and installed another royal family member, al-Fudail.

46. (1495) al-Fudail ibn Suleiman ('Alfudail', nephew of Ibrahim, thus of royal blood) installed by Emir Muhammad, after his own abdication. This is 1495 AD (901 AH). Immediately after ascension, exiled ex-ruler Hassan ibn Suleiman returned with a mixed army of Bantus and Kilwan exiles to reclaim the throne, the sheikh of Zanzibar offered to mediate, and, through his good offices, al-Fudail even contemplated ceding the throne to Hassan and ending the quarrel. But Emir Muhammad refused to allow it. Instead, he promised al-Hassan an amnesty, but only if he returned to private life in Kilwa. While awaiting Hassan's reply to this offer, the great Emir Muhammad Kiwabi died rather suddenly; in the confusion, pretender Hassan infiltrated troops into Kilwa city, under the command of his own son Sa'id. Caught by city authorities, Sa'id invented a story about just 'preparing the house' for his father's peaceful return to Kilwa as a private citizen. To allay suspicions, Sa'id finally proposed to lead a Kilwan embassy, escorted by a squad of city troops, to his father's encampment to confirm his story. Thinking the crisis had been defused, at least until the embassy returned from its investigation, Kilwa let its guard down, but the embassy did not return. Rather, Sa'id led it to at trap, and it was massacred, the army of al-Hassan attacked that very same night. The surprised city rallied frantically to its defenses, and a great and bloody battle ensued outside the gates of the city, the Kilwans defeated al-Hassan and put an end to the perennial pretender. The victorious Sultan al-Fudail appointed a certain Ibrahim ibn Suleiman as emir, to replace the late Emir Muhammad, but this state of affairs only lasted a few years.

End of Mahdali dynasty c. 1495, beginning of a series of usurpers and Portuguese puppets.

47. (1499) Ibrahim ibn Suleiman ('Emir Ibrahim', 'Mir Habraemo' in Portuguese) minister of Sultan al-Fudail; deposed and murdered the sultan and tooks power himself not as sultan, but in the name of an absent son of an earlier sultan Suleiman. Incensed, the regional vassals of the Kilwan Sultanate refuse to recognize the usurpation. Emir Ibrahim will be driven out and deposed by the Portuguese captain Francisco de Almeida in 1505.

48. (1505) Muhammad ibn Rukn ad Din (Muhammad 'Arcone' to the Portuguese, Kilwan noble, not of royal lineage) installed by Francisco de Almeida as Portuguese vassal sultan of Kilwa. But remembering the importance of constitutional propriety, Muhammad immediately appointed royal prince Muntari, the son of late al-Fudail, as his successor, he was assassinated after a year.

In 1944, a small number of copper coins with Arabic inscriptions were discovered on a beach in Jensen Bay on Marchinbar Island, part of the Wessel Islands of the Northern Territory of Australia. These coins were later identified as from the Sultanate of Kilwa. Only one such coin had ever previously been found outside east Africa (unearthed during an excavation in Oman), the inscriptions on the Jensen Bay coins identify a ruling Sultan of Kilwa from the 12th century. This discovery has been of interest to those historians and archaeologists who believe it likely that people made landfall in Australia or its offshore islands before the first generally accepted such discovery, by the Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in 1606. A group called the Past Masters, a network of academics, practitioners and enthusiasts is investigating the Weesel Islands for more clues. (See Janszoon voyage of 1605-6 and History of Australia (1606–1787).)[28]

^Theal (1902). But according to the chronicle cited in Strong (1895), there were six sons, and all six plus their father fled the kingdom in different directions, after the father distilled a poor omen from a dream.

^Changa is the name given by the chronicles for a mainland Bantu kingdom that repeatedly harassed the early Kilwa colony. It is a possible reference to the local 'Changamire' dynasty that, in the 15th century, began to challenge the overlordship of the Monomatapa and would go on to overthrow it and establish the Rozwi confederacy, the Changamire is not known to have existed at the time the chronicles suggest, but they were beginning to emerge at the time the chronicle was written down, and so may be a reference to their ancestors.

^Dating unclear. Not being Shirazi, Khalid ibn Bakr is not in Bosworth's (1996) list, but he is given in Zanzibar Chronicle (Strong, 1895: p.389) and Barros (1552: 226).

^Zanzibar Chronicle (Strong 1895: p.389) claims al-Hassan fled to Zanzibar following a second invasion by the Changa, who installed a usurping emir Muhammad ibn al-Hussein al-Mundhiri. But the usurper was quickly toppled in a popular rising, and the exiled sultan al-Hassan was restored. Dates are problematic. Barros (1552: p.226) claims al-Hassan ruled sixteen years and was succeeded by his nephew Ali ibn Dawud, who ruled sixty. But Bosworth (1996) identifies Ali as only ascending around 1042, leaving the intervening gap unaccounted for.

^Barros (1552: p.227) identifies Suleiman ibn al-Hassan as the son of Dawud ibn Suleiman, inheriting his enterprises in Sofala, which he used as a launchpad to become lord of Sofala and master of the Swahili coast.

^Zanzibar chronicle (Strong, 1895: p.390) claims Dawud ruled for only a few days and was deposed by his uncle. Probably confusing this ith his son, Suleiman.

^Zanzibar chronicle (Strong 1895: p.390) cites Talut ibn Dawud as Talut ibn Hussein, suggesting he was a son rather than nephew of previous. Also says he died while on pilgrimage to Mecca, and was succeeded by either his son or brother.

^Known as Muhammad Ladil to Barros; Zanzibar chronicle names him as 'al-Malik al-Adil', and gives his real name as Muhammad ibn Suleiman ibn al-Hussein, claiming he had served as vizier, and was elevated to the throne by the nobles and people. Also claims he ruled 22, rather 9 years.

^Zanzibar chronicle reports it was his nephew Hajj Rush (son of earlier sultan Hussein) that rebuilt the mosque of Kilwa, adamant about doing so with his own money and resources. Nonetheless, his uncle sultan Suleiman insisted on donating one thousand pieces of gold to the effort; Hajj Rush accepted the donation reluctantly, but secretly put the money aside, and returned the donation to Suleiman's heirs after the sultan's died.

^Barros suggests Ibrahim was the son of Emir Muhammad, and thus of the vizier family. The Zanzibar chronicle insists he was a brother of Sabhat, and thus of royal lineage (son of 31st sultan Muhammad al-Adil). Our list opts for the latter.

1.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period

2.
Sultanate
–
Sultan is a noble title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning strength, authority, rulership, derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate. A feminine form of sultan, used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah, but Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, because Turkish grammar uses the same words for women and men. However, this styling misconstrues the roles of wives of sultans, in a similar usage, the wife of a German field marshal might be styled Frau Feldmarschall. The female leaders in Muslim history are known as sultanas. Special case in Brunei, the Queen Consort is known as Raja Isteri with suffix Pengiran Anak if the queen consort is a royal princess. Among those modern hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law and these are generally secondary titles, either lofty poetry or with a message, e. g. g. Sultan ul-Mujahidin as champion of jihad, ghaznavid Sultanate Sultans of Great Seljuk Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the Osmanli Elisu Sultanate and a few others. A Sultan ranked below a Khan and this usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as sultan, but Ottomans themselves used padişah or hünkar to refer to their ruler, the emperors formal title consisted of sultan together with khan. In formal address, the children were also entitled sultan, with imperial princes carrying the title before their given name. Example, Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan, son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title sultan. In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty elected by clans, the best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai. See ru, Казахские султаны In a number of states under Mongol or Turkic rule. These administrations were often decimal, using originally princely titles such as khan, malik, in the Persian empire, the rank of sultan was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West, socially in the fifth-rank class, styled Ali Jah

3.
Kilwa Kisiwani
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Kilwa Kisiwani is a community on an island off the southern coast of present-day Tanzania in eastern Africa. Historically, it was the center of the Kilwa Sultanate, a medieval sultanate whose authority at its height in the 13th-15th centuries AD stretched the length of the Swahili Coast. Kilwa Kisiwani has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the nearby stonetown Songo Mnara, Kilwa Kisiwani is an archaeological city-state site located along the Swahili Coast on the Kilwa archipelago. It was occupied from at least the 8th century AD and became one of the most powerful settlements along the coast, the seasonal wind reversals would affect trade circulations. Many of the Swahili settlements showed complex layouts that reflected social relations between groups, however at Kilwa, there are many questions left unanswered about the town layout. The cemeteries were located on the edge of the town, which was common for the region, an important city for trade, around the 13th century there were increased fortifications and a greater flow of goods. For these to take place, there would need to be a form of political administration overseeing the city, much of the trade networks were with the Arabian peninsula. Kilwa Kisiwani reached its highest point in wealth and commerce between 13th and 15th centuries AD, evidence of growth in wealth can be seen with the appearance of stone buildings around the 13th century AD, before which all of the buildings were wattle-and-daub. The socio-economic status of the individuals residing there could be seen in the type of structure they were living in. Among Kilwas exports were spices, tortoise shell, coconut oil, ivory, at around this time, Kilwa had seized control over the trade of gold at Sofala. The wealthy also possessed more commercial goods than the individuals who were of lower class did, luxury cloths and foreign ceramics were among a few of the items they would have owned, though some items, such as luxury cloths, do not preserve in the archaeological record. For approximately 500 years, Kilwa was minting coins and this lasted from about A. D 1100-1600 and the coins have been found across the region, including Great Zimbabwe. Marine resources were abundant and utilized for food, food sources would also come from the surrounding land. But because of the impact the sea, with all of the resources and trade opportunities, had on Kilwa. The soil at Kilwa that was found over the limestone was of poor quality, however, the soil in the Kilwa region would have been suitable for growing cotton, which could be used in sail manufacture. 12th century spindle whorls have been found, indicating that cotton was used and processed in this area, at first, most of the focus was placed on the archaeology of Kilwas ports and harbors, however, more and more emphasis is being placed on Kilwas hinterlands. Ceramic artifacts are plentiful at the site and can be divided into two groups, regional and coastal, all of the ceramics with regional distribution were locally produced, but the area of distribution is limited. These unglazed ceramics were referred to as Kitchen Wares, though their uses were not necessarily just as cooking vessels and it is important to note that all of the varieties of locally produced pottery found in the region were also uncovered at the site of Kilwa itself

4.
Tanzania
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Tanzania /ˌtænzəˈniːə/, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in Eastern Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Parts of the country are in Southern Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Tanzanias population of 51.82 million is diverse, composed of ethnic, linguistic. Dar es Salaam, the capital, retains most government offices and is the countrys largest city, principal port. Tanzania is a one party dominant state with the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in power, from its formation until 1992, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. Elections for president and all National Assembly seats were last held in October 2015, the CCM holds approximately 75% of the seats in the assembly. Prehistoric population migrations include Southern Cushitic speakers, who are ancestral to the Iraqw, Gorowa, and Burunge and who moved south from Ethiopia into Tanzania. Based on linguistic evidence, there may also have two movements into Tanzania of Eastern Cushitic people at about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago. These movements took place at about the time as the settlement of the iron-making Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria. They brought with them the west African planting tradition and the staple of yams. They subsequently migrated out of these regions across the rest of Tanzania, European colonialism began in mainland Tanzania during the late 19th century when Germany formed German East Africa, which gave way to British rule following World War I. The mainland was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar Archipelago remaining a separate colonial jurisdiction, following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located, three of Africas Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. To the north and west lie Lake Victoria, Africas largest lake, and Lake Tanganyika, the eastern shore is hot and humid, with the Zanzibar Archipelago just offshore. The Menai Bay Conservation Area is Zanzibars largest marine protected area, over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. Among the languages spoken in Tanzania are all four of Africas language families, Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, Swahili and English are Tanzanias official languages. In connection with his Ujamaa social policies, President Nyerere encouraged the use of Swahili, approximately 10% of Tanzanians speak Swahili as a first language, and up to 90% speak it as a second language. Most Tanzanians thus speak both Swahili and a language, many educated Tanzanians are trilingual, also speaking English

5.
Swahili coast
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The Swahili Coast refers to a coastal area in Southeast Africa inhabited by the Swahili people. It mainly consists of littoral Kenya, Tanzania and northern Mozambique, the term may also include some of the Indian Ocean islands, such as Zanzibar, Pate and Comoros, which lie off the Swahili Coast. The Swahili Coast has a culture, demography, religion and geography. Historical documents including the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and works by Ibn Battuta describe the society, culture, the rise of the Swahili Coast city-states can be largely attributed to the regions extensive participation in a trade network that spanned the Indian Ocean. Evidence for Indian Ocean trade includes the presence of pot sherds on coastal sites that can be traced back to China. A product of the environment of the Swahili Coast was the development of the Swahili language. Sea of Zanj Swahili culture Swahili architecture Kilwa Sultanate

6.
Persian people
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The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import

7.
Shiraz
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Shiraz is the sixth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province. At the 2011 census, the population of the city was 1,700,665, Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river. It has a climate and has been a regional trade center for over a thousand years. Shiraz is one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia, the earliest reference to the city, as Tiraziš, is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BC. In the 13th century, Shiraz became a center of the arts and letters, due to the encouragement of its ruler. It was the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty from 1750 until 1800, two famous poets of Iran, Hafez and Saadi, are from Shiraz, whose tombs are on the north side of the current city boundaries. Shiraz is known as the city of poets, literature, wine and it is also considered by many Iranians to be the city of gardens, due to the many gardens and fruit trees that can be seen in the city, for example Eram Garden. Shiraz has had major Jewish and Christian communities, the crafts of Shiraz consist of inlaid mosaic work of triangular design, silver-ware, pile carpet-weaving and weaving of kilim, called gilim and jajim in the villages and among the tribes. In Shiraz industries such as cement production, sugar, fertilizers, textile products, wood products, metalwork, Shirāz also has a major oil refinery and is also a major center for Irans electronic industries, 53% of Irans electronic investment has been centered in Shiraz. Shiraz is home to Irans first solar power plant, recently the citys first wind turbine has been installed above Babakoohi mountain near the city. The earliest reference to the city is on Elamite clay tablets dated to 2000 BCE, found in June 1970, the tablets written in ancient Elamite name a city called Tiraziš. Phonetically, this is interpreted as /tiračis/ or /ćiračis/ and this name became Old Persian /širājiš/, through regular sound change comes the modern Persian name Shirāz. The name Shiraz also appears on clay sealings found at a 2nd-century CE Sassanid ruin, by some of the native writers, the name Shiraz has derived from a son of Tahmuras, the third Shāh of the world according to Ferdowsis Shāhnāma. Shiraz is most likely more than 4,000 years old, the name Shiraz is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions from around 2000 BC found in southwestern corner of the city. According to some Iranian mythological traditions, it was erected by Tahmuras Diveband. The oldest sample of wine in the world, dating to approximately 7,000 years ago, was discovered on clay jars recovered outside of Shiraz, in the Achaemenian era, Shiraz was on the way from Susa to Persepolis and Pasargadae. In Ferdowsis Shāhnāma it has said that Artabanus V, the Parthian Emperor of Iran. Ghasre Abu-Nasr which is originally from Parthian era is situated in this area, during the Sassanid era, Shiraz was in between the way which was connecting Bishapur and Gur to Istakhr

8.
Ajuran Sultanate
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The Ajuran Sultanate, also spelled Ajuuraan Sultanate, and often simply as Ajuran, was a Somali Muslim sultanate that ruled over large parts of the Horn of Africa in the Middle Ages. The sultanate left an architectural legacy, being one of the major medieval Somali powers engaged in castle. During the Ajuran period, many regions and people in the part of the Horn of Africa converted to Islam because of the theocratic nature of the government. The royal family, the House of Garen, expanded its territories and established its rule through a skillful combination of warfare. As an hydraulic empire, the Ajuran monopolized the water resources of the Shebelle, through hydraulic engineering, it also constructed many of the limestone wells and cisterns of the state that are still operative and in use today. The rulers developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century, the Ajuran Sultanates sphere of influence in the Horn of Africa was one of the largest in the region. The sultanate covered much of southern Somalia, with its domain extending from Mareeg in the north, to Qelafo in the west, the House of Garen was the ruling hereditary dynasty of the Ajuran Sultanate. Its origin lies in the Garen Kingdom that during the 13th century ruled parts of the Ogaden, through their genealogical Baraka, which came from the saint Balad, the Garen rulers claimed supremacy and religious legitimacy over other groups in the Horn of Africa. Balads ancestors are said to have come from the northern region of Barbara. The Ajuran nobility used many of the typical Somali aristocratic and court titles and these leaders were the sultanates highest authority, and counted multiple Sultans, Emirs, and Kings as clients or vassals. The Garen rulers also had seasonal palaces in Mareeg, Qelafo and Merca, other important cities in the Sultanate were Mogadishu and Barawa. The state religion was Islam, and thus law was based on Sharia, large wells made out of limestone were constructed throughout the state, which attracted Somali and Oromo nomads with their livestock. The centralized regulations of the wells made it easier for the nomads to settle disputes by taking their queries to government officials who would act as mediators, long distance caravan trade, a long-time practice in the Horn of Africa, continued unchanged in Ajuran times. Today, numerous ruined and abandoned towns throughout the interior of Somalia, with the centralized supervision of the Ajuran, farms in Afgooye, Kismayo and other areas in the Jubba and Shabelle valleys increased their productivity. This irrigation system was supported by numerous dikes and dams, to determine the average size of a farm, a land measurement system was also invented with moos, taraab and guldeed being the terms used. The State collected tribute from the farmers in the form of harvested products like durra, sorghum and bun, the collecting of tribute was done by a wazir. Luxury goods imported from foreign lands were presented as gifts to the Garen rulers by the coastal sultans of the state. The rulers would also claim a portion of the brides wealth

9.
Abyssinian people
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The Abyssinian people, also known as the Habesha, are a people inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They include a few linguistically, culturally and ancestrally related ethnic groups in the Ethiopian Highlands, members cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to the Kingdom of Dʿmt and the Kingdom of Aksum. Scholars have classified the Amhara and the Tigreans as Abyssinians proper, the Geez speaking people, minimally affected by Sabaean influence, formed the ethnic and cultural stock for both the pre-Axumite and Axumite states. Geez, which is related to Tigrinya and Tigre, is also believed to be the ancestor of the diverse southern Ethiopian Semitic languages including Amharic. Together, the Amhara and Tigray constitute over 35% of Ethiopias population, the Abyssinians are believed to be descendants of the Axumites, who spoke the ancient Geez language. Geez is most closely related to Tigrinya and Tigre languages, the Aksumites inhabited northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. They already lived in area by the early 1st millennium BC, and founded the Axumite empire. These people formed the basic stock of both the pre-Axumite and Axumite states. By the medieval period, the Semitic languages would have spread southward as far as southern Shewa, eastward into the Hararghe highlands, linguistic analysis further indicates that the Ethiopian Semitic languages have retained a Cushitic substratum, which also belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family. The Geez language, Tigre and Tigrinya spoken in the north were influenced by Beja, Agaw and Saho-Afar substrates, with Amharic and Gafat in the south also partially influenced by these substrates. The Amharic, Argobba, Harari and Gurage tongues spoken in central Ethiopia are characterized by an Eastern Sidamo or Highland East Cushitic substratum, as well as Oromo, overall, the linguistic impact of the Cushitic languages is more marked toward the south. In Arabic, the plateau on the east of the Nile, from which most of the waters of that river are derived, is called Habesh. The modern term derives from the vocalized Geez, ሐበሣ, Ḥabaśā, first written with a script that did not mark vowels as ሐበሠ ḤBŚ or in pseudo-Sabaic as ḤBŠTM. The earliest known use of the dates to the second or third century Sabaean inscription recounting the defeat of the nəgus GDRT of Aksum. The term Habashat appears to refer to a group of peoples, a Sabaean inscription describes an alliance between Shamir Yuhahmid of the Himyarite Kingdom and King DBH of Aksum in the first quarter of the third century. The submission of Shamir of dhū Raydān and the clans of Habashat, the term Habesha was formerly thought by some scholars to be of Arabic descent because the English name Abyssinia comes from the Arabic form. Based on the inscriptions the Aksumites left behind, they did not regard themselves or their territory as Habesha and he believed the etymology of Habesha must have derived from the Mehri language, which means “gatherers”. It was not until long after Aksumite kingdom had ended that Gulf Arab travelers and geographers began to describe the Horn region as Al-Habash, the first among these travelers were Al-Masudi and Al-Harrani

10.
Ormus
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The Kingdom of Ormus was a 10th- to 17th-century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz. The Kingdom was established by Arab princes in the 10th century who in 1262 came under the suzerainty of Persia, the kingdom received its name from the fortified port city which served as its capital. It was one of the most important ports in the Middle East at the time as it controlled seaway trading routes through the Persian Gulf to India and this port was probably located on Hormuz Island, which is located near the modern city of Bandar-e Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest, on the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. The city-state of Ormus dates back to the 13th century when it controlled the market from Africa. At its zenith in 13th to 14th century, Ormus was a powerful state with a large and active trading fleet. Petrashevsky reports the size of the fleet to be up to 500 fighting ships and these ships were not armed with cannons. The original city of Hormuz was situated on the mainland in the province of Mogostan of the province of Kirman and it was destroyed, date uncertain, either by one of the princes of the Kirman Seljuk, or by the Mongols. At this time the inhabitants moved to the island of Jerun. It was during the reign of Mir Bahdin Ayaz Seyfin, fifteenth king of Hormuz, the wealth of Hormuz attracted raids so often that the inhabitants sought refuge off the mainland and initially moved to the island of Kishm. Mir Bahdin then visited the island of Jerun and obtained it from Neyn, King of Keys, to whom all the islands in the area belonged. Abbé T G F Raynal gives the account of Hormuz in his history, Hormúz became the capital of an empire which comprehended a considerable part of Arabia on one side. At the time of the arrival of the merchants, it afforded a more splendid. Persons from all parts of the globe exchanged their commodities and transacted their business with an air of politeness and attention, which are seldom seen in other places of trade. The streets were covered with mats and in places with carpet. India cabinets ornamented with gilded vases, or china filled with flowering shrubs or aromatic plants adorned their apartments, camels laden with water were stationed in the public squares. Around 1320 or 1330, Kut al-Din Tahamtan captured the island of Kays, ibn Batutta visited the kingdom at this time. Around 1376 the 30-year-old Chinese merchant Lin Nu visited Ormuz, converted to Islam, the Confucian philosopher Li Zhi was their descendant

11.
Mogadishu
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Mogadishu, known locally as Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. Located in the coastal Banaadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for millennia, tradition and old records assert that southern Somalia, including the Mogadishu area, was historically inhabited by hunter-gatherers. These were later joined by Cushitic-speaking agro-pastoralists, who would go on to establish local aristocracies, during its medieval Golden Age, Mogadishu was ruled by the Muzaffar dynasty, a vassal of the Ajuran Sultanate. It subsequently fell under the control of an assortment of local Sultanates and polities, the city later became the capital of Italian Somaliland in the colonial period. After the Somali Republic became independent in 1960, Mogadishu became known, the ICU thereafter splintered into more radical groups, notably al-Shabaab, which fought the Transitional Federal Government and its African Union Mission to Somalia allies. With a change in administration in late 2010, government troops, Mogadishu has subsequently experienced a period of intense reconstruction. As Somalias capital city, many important national institutions are based in Mogadishu and it is the seat of the Federal Government of Somalia established in August 2012, with the Somalia Federal Parliament serving as the governments legislative branch. Yusuf Hussein Jimaale has been the Mayor of Mogadishu since October 2015, villa Somalia is the official residential palace and principal workplace of the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. In May 2012, the First Somali Bank was established in the capital, the establishment of a local construction yard has also galvanized the citys real-estate sector. Arbaa Rukun Mosque is one of the oldest Islamic places of worship in the capital, the Mosque of Islamic Solidarity in Mogadishu is the largest masjid in the Horn region. Mogadishu Cathedral was built in 1928 by the authorities in Italian Somaliland in a Norman Gothic style. The National Museum of Somalia is based in Mogadishu and holds many important artefacts. The National Library of Somalia is undergoing a $1 million Somali federal government funded renovation, Mogadishu is home to a number of scholastic and media institutions. As part of the urban renewal program,100 schools across the capital are scheduled to be refurbished and reopened. The Somali National University was established in the 1950s, and professors from the university founded the non-governmental Mogadishu University. Benadir University was established in 2002 with the intention of training doctors, various national sporting bodies have their headquarters in Mogadishu, including the Somali Football Federation and the Somali Olympic Committee. Mogadishu Stadium was constructed in 1978 during the Siad Barre administration and it hosts football matches with teams from the Somali First Division and the Somalia Cup. Additionally, the Port of Mogadishu serves as a national seaport and is the largest harbour in Somalia

12.
Somalis
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Somalis are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family, ethnic Somalis number around 16-20 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Expatriate Somalis are also found in parts of the Middle East, North America, Oceania, Samaale, the oldest common ancestor of several Somali clans, is generally regarded as the source of the ethnonym Somali. The name Somali is, in turn, held to be derived from the words soo and maal, another plausible etymology proposes that the term Somali is derived from the Arabic for wealthy, again referring to Somali riches in livestock. The first clear reference of the sobriquet Somali, however. Simur was also an ancient Harari alias for the Somali people, Ancient rock paintings, which date back 5000 years, have been found in the northern part of Somalia, these depict early life in the territory. In other places, such as the northern Dhambalin region, a depiction of a man on a horse is postulated as being one of the earliest known examples of a mounted huntsman. Inscriptions have been found many of the rock paintings. During the Stone age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here with their industries and factories. The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in northern Somalia are said to be the most important link in evidence of the universality in palaeolithic times between the East and the West. In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the regions commerce with the rest of the ancient world. According to most scholars, the ancient Land of Punt and its inhabitants formed part of the ethnogenesis of the Somali people, the ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut. The pyramidal structures, temples and ancient houses of dressed stone littered around Somalia are said to date from this period, the city of Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam, and controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries. The Sultanate of Ifat, led by the Walashma dynasty with its capital at Zeila, ruled parts of what is now eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti. The historian al-Umari records that Ifat was situated near the Red Sea coast and its army numbered 15,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. Al-Umari also credits Ifat with seven cities, Belqulzar, Kuljura, Shimi, Shewa, Adal, Jamme. The Harla, an early Hamitic group of tall stature who inhabited parts of Somalia, Tchertcher and other areas in the Horn and these masons are believed to have been ancestral to the Somalis

13.
Bantu peoples
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Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300–600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. They inhabit an area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by most populations in Africa. There are about 650 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility and this Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from. They also encountered some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast, who had there for centuries migrating from Northeast Africa. Individual Bantu groups today often include millions of people, among these are the Shona of Zimbabwe with 14.2 million people, the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 13. Swahili also serves as one of the languages of the African Union. The word Bantu, and its variations, means people or humans, the root in Proto-Bantu is reconstructed as *-ntu. This view represents a resolution of debates in the 1960s over competing theories advanced by Joseph Greenberg and Malcolm Guthrie and he proposed that Bantu languages had spread east and south from there, to secondary centers of further dispersion, over hundreds of years. Subsequent research on loanwords for adaptations in agriculture and animal husbandry and it is unclear exactly when the spread of Bantu-speakers began from their core area as hypothesized c.5,000 years ago. Another stream of migration, moving east, by 3,000 years ago was creating a new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa. Pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by A. D.300 along the coast, before the expansion of farming and herding peoples, including those speaking Bantu languages, Africa south of the equator was populated by neolithic hunting and foraging peoples. Some of them were ancestral to proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples, whose modern hunter-forager and linguistic descendants, the Hadza and Sandawe populations in Tanzania comprise the other modern hunter-forager remnant in Africa of these proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples. After their movements from their homeland in West Africa, Bantus also encountered in East Africa peoples of Afro-Asiatic. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus likely borrowed the custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area. On the coastal section of East Africa, another mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab, the Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region in the south of the Central African rain forest. On the Zambezi river, the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex, from the 16th century onward, the processes of state formation amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency

14.
Mafia Island
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Mafia Island is part of the Tanzanian Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Unguja, Pemba and Latham Island. According to the 2002 Tanzania census, the population of the Mafia District was 40,801, the economy is based on fishing, subsistence agriculture and the market in Kilindoni. The island attracts tourists, mainly adventure scuba divers, game fishermen. The Mafia archipelago consists of one island and several smaller ones. Some of the ones are inhabited, such as Chole Island. Chole Bay, Mafias protected deep-water anchorage and original harbour, is studded with islands, sandbanks, the stretch of water between the deltas of the Rufiji River and the island is called Mafia Channel. The popular rumours of pygmy hippo on the island were confirmed by the Tanzania Tourist Board in 2013 because of the first documented sighting by two tourists, Mafia Islands history goes back to the 8th century. The island once played a role in ancient trade between the people of the East Asia and East Africa. It was a stop for Arab boats. In the mid-1820s, the town of Kua on Juani Island was attacked by Sakalava cannibals arriving from Madagascar with 80 canoes, under a treaty of 1890, Germany took control of Mafia and constructed the buildings still evident on Chole. Germany paid Sultan Sayyid Ali bin Said al-Said of Oman M4 million for both the island and part of the mainland coast, on January 12,1915, Mafia was taken by British troops as a base for the air and sea assault on the light cruiser Königsberg. The name Mafia derives from the Arabic morfiyeh, meaning group or archipelago, or from the Swahili mahali pa afya, in 1995 Mafia Island had financial help from the WWF to make a natural marine wildlife centre which led to establishment of the first Marine Park in Tanzania. The WWF Mafia office is under three technical staff - Paul Kugopya, Marko Gideon and Renatus Rwamugira, tanzanias first multi-user marine park at Mafia Island was established in 1995 following management recommendations and data from surveys conducted by the Society for Environmental Exploration. The discovery was detailed in a blog post by Sutton, with images showing remnants of the wall, “The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland. ”Azania Vol. XXXIV1999, pp. 1–10. “The Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania, sailing in the Erythraean Sea” by Felix A. Chami, from, Red Sea Trade and Travel. Organised by The Society for Arabian Studies, downloaded on 20 July 2003 from thebritishmuseum. ac. uk Mafia Island Tanzania Mafia Island Tanzania

15.
Sofala
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Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique and it was founded by African and Indian Ocean traders linked to the Global Monsoon Complex, including Swahili and Somali merchants and seafarers. One of the oldest harbours documented in Southern Africa, medieval Sofala was erected on the edge of an estuary formed by the Buzi River. Sofala was founded about the year 700 and was part of a line of trading centers stretching from Kismayu, incorporating Mombasa, Malindi. Sofala played host to assorted African trading communities, Swahili, Arab, Complex trade routes from the coast entered deep into the hinterland from where most tradeable goods, including ivory, were sourced. The Buzi River connected Sofala to the market town of Manica. Sometime in the 10th century, Sofala emerged as a trading post and was incorporated into the greater global monsoon complex. In the 1180s, Sultan Suleiman Hassan of Kilwa seized control of Sofala, and brought Sofala into the Kilwa Sultanate and the Swahili cultural sphere. The Swahili strengthened its trading capacity by having, among other things, rivergoing dhows ply the Buzi, alternately, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Augustus Henry Keane argued that Sofala was the Biblical Tarshish. Since the early 1900s, both notions have been discarded, the name Sofala is most probably derived from the Arabic for lowlands, a reference to the flat coastlands and low-lying islands and sandbanks that characterize the region. Formally, Sofala continued to belong to the Kingdom of Mwenemutapa, the Sultan of Kilwa had jurisdiction only over the Swahili residents, and his governor was more akin to a consul than a ruler. The city retained a degree of autonomy, and could be quite prickly should the Sultan of Kilwa try to interfere in its affairs. Sofala was easily the most dominant coastal city south of Kilwa itself, Portuguese explorer and spy Pêro da Covilhã, travelling overland disguised as an Arab merchant, was the first European known to have visited Sofala in 1489. His secret report to Lisbon identified Sofalas role as a gold emporium, in 1501 Sofala was scouted from the sea and its location determined by captain Sancho de Tovar. In 1502, Pedro Afonso de Aguiar led the first Portuguese ships into Sofala harbor, Aguiar sought out an audience with the ruling sheikh Isuf of Sofala. At the time, Isuf was engaged in a quarrel with Kilwa, the minister Emir Ibrahim had deposed and murdered the legitimate Sultan al-Fudail of Kilwa, and seized power for himself. Isuf of Sofala refused to recognize the usurper and was looking for a way to shake off Kilwas lordship, the Portuguese, with their powerful ships, seemed to provide the key. At any rate, the elderly sheikh Isuf realized it would be better to make rather than enemies out of them

16.
Ivory trade
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The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, African and Asian elephants. Ivory has been traded for hundreds of years by people in such as Greenland, Alaska. The trade, in recent times, has led to endangerment of species. Elephant ivory has been exported from Africa and Asia for centuries with records going back to the 14th century BCE. Throughout the colonisation of Africa ivory was removed, often using slaves to carry the tusks, to be used for keys, billiard balls. At the peak of the trade, pre-20th century, during the colonisation of Africa. World wars and the subsequent economic depressions caused a lull in this luxury commodity, Japan, relieved from its exchange restrictions imposed after World War II, started to buy up raw ivory. This started to put pressure on the forest elephants of Africa and Asia, both of which were used to supply the hard ivory preferred by the Japanese for the production of hankos, or name seals. Prior to this period, most name seals had been made from wood with a tip, carved with the signature. Softer ivory from East Africa and southern Africa was traded for souvenirs, jewelry, China, yet to become the economic force of today, consumed small amounts of ivory to keep its skilled carvers in business. In 1979, the African elephant population was estimated to be around 1.3 million in 37 range states, although many ivory traders repeatedly claimed that the problem was habitat loss, it became glaringly clear that the threat was primarily the international ivory trade. Throughout this decade, around 75,000 African elephants were killed for the ivory trade annually, about 80% of this was estimated to come from illegally killed elephants. The debate usually rested on the numbers of elephants, estimates of poached elephants, activists such as Jim Nyamu have described current ivory prices for poached ivory and the dangers such activists face from organized poaching. Solutions to the problem of poaching and illegal trade focused on trying to control international ivory movements through CITES, although poaching remains a concern in areas of Africa, it is not the only threat for the elephants who roam its wilderness. Fences in farmlands are becoming more common, this disrupts the elephants migration patterns. Some CITES parties, led by Zimbabwe, stated that wildlife had to have economic value attached to it to survive and this was widely accepted in terms of non-lethal use of wildlife, but a debate raged over lethal use as in the case of the ivory trade. Most encounters between CITES officials and local bands of poachers erupted in violent struggle, killing men on each side and it was recognised that the sustainable lethal use of wildlife argument was in jeopardy if the ivory trade could not be controlled. In 1986, CITES introduced a new control system involving CITES paper permits, registration of huge ivory stockpiles, in 1986 and 1987, CITES registered 89.5 and 297 tonnes of ivory in Burundi and Singapore respectively

17.
Great Zimbabwe
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Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the countrys Late Iron Age, construction on the monument began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century. The most widely-accepted modern archaeological theory is that the edifices were erected by the ancestral Shona, the stone city spans an area of 722 hectares which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch. As such, it would have used as the seat of political power. Among the edifices most prominent features were its walls, some of which were over five metres high, eventually, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin. The earliest known mention of the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala. The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named for it. The word great distinguishes the site from the hundreds of small ruins, now known as zimbabwes. There are 200 such sites in southern Africa, such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, with monumental, mortarless walls, Zimbabwe is the Shona name of the ruins, first recorded in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala. Pegado noted that The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, the name contains dzimba, the Shona term for houses. There are two theories for the etymology of the name, the first proposes that the word is derived from Dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as large houses of stone. A second suggests that Zimbabwe is a form of dzimba-hwe. The majority of scholars believe that it was built by members of the Gokomere culture, a few believe that the ancestors of the Lemba or Venda were responsible, or cooperated with the Gokomere in the construction. The Great Zimbabwe area was settled by the century of the common era. Between the fourth and the centuries, communities of the Gokomere or Ziwa cultures farmed the valley, and mined and worked iron. These are the earliest Iron Age settlements in the area identified from archaeological diggings, construction of the stone buildings started in the 11th century and continued for over 300 years. The ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa, and are the second oldest after nearby Mapungubwe in South Africa

18.
Kingdom of Mutapa
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Its founders are descendants of the builders who constructed Great Zimbabwe. The Portuguese term Monomotapa is a transliteration of the African royal title Mwenemutapa meaning prince of the realm. It is derived from a combination of two words Mwene meaning Prince, and Mutapa meaning Realm, over time the monarchs royal title came to be applied to the kingdom as a whole, and was used to denote the kingdoms territory on maps from the period. The origins of the dynasty at Mutapa go back to some time in the first half of the 15th century. According to oral tradition, the first Mwene was a prince named Nyatsimba Mutota from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe sent to find new sources of salt in the north. Thats the first legend Prince Mutota found his salt among the Tavara, a Shona subdivision, the second says that there was hunger at the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. Mutota then escaped the hunger then found land and they were conquered, a capital was established 350 km north of Great Zimbabwe at Zvongombe by the Zambezi. Mutotas successor, Mwenemutapa Matope, extended this new kingdom into an empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean, the Mwenemutapa became very wealthy by exploiting copper from Chidzurgwe and ivory from the middle Zambezi. This expansion weakened the Torwa kingdom, the southern Shona state from which Mutota, matopes armies overran the kingdom of the Manyika as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Mozambique and he raised a strong army which conquered the Dande area that is Tonga and Tavara. The empire had reached its full extent by the year 1480 a mere 50 years following its creation, the Emperor Mutope had left the empire with a well-organised religion with a powerful priesthood, something uncommon amongst African Kingdoms outside of Egypt, Kush and Abyssinia. The religion of the Mutapa kingdom revolved around ritual consultation of spirits, shrines were maintained within the capital by spirit mediums known as mhondoro. The mhondoro also served as oral historians recording the names and deeds of past kings, the Portuguese dominated much of southeast Africas coast, laying waste to Sofala and Kilwa, by 1515. Their main goal was to dominate the trade with India, however, as the Portuguese settled along the coast, they made their way into the hinterland as sertanejos. These sertanejos lived alongside Swahili traders and even took up service among Shona kings as interpreters, one such sertanejo, António Fernandes, managed to travel through almost all the Shona kingdoms, including Mutapas metropolitan district, between 1512 and 1516. The Portuguese finally entered into relations with the Mwenemutapa in the 1560s. They recorded a wealth of information about the Mutapa kingdom as well as its predecessor, and while the site was not within Mutapas borders, the Mwenemutapa kept noblemen and some of his wives there. In 1569, King Sebastian of Portugal made a grant of arms to the Mwenemutapa and these were blazoned, Gules between two arrows Argent an African hoe barwise bladed Or handled Argent – The shield surmounted by a Crown Oriental

19.
Malindi
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Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Galana River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa, the population of Malindi was 207,253 as of the 2009 census. It is the largest urban centre in Kilifi County, Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. The city is popular among Italian tourists. Malindi is served with an airport and a highway between Mombasa and Lamu. The nearby Watamu resort and Gedi Ruins are south of Malindi, the mouth of the Sabaki River lies in northern Malindi. The Watamu and Malindi Marine National Parks form a protected coastal area south of Malindi. The area shows classic examples of Swahili architecture, the majority of Malindis population is Muslim. Malindi is home to the Malindi Airport and Broglio Space Centre, the first written reference to the present day Malindi likely comes from Abu al-Fida, Kurdish geographer and historian. He wrote that Malindi is situated to the south of the mouth of the river and this mountain may be Mount Kenya, where Galana River originates. Therefore, Malindi has existed as a Swahili settlement since the 13th century, once rivalled only by Mombasa for dominance in this part of East Africa, Malindi has traditionally been a port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the town was visited by the fleet of the Chinese explorer Zheng He, Malindis ruler sent a personal envoy with a giraffe as a present to China on that fleet. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama met Malindi authorities in 1498 to sign an agreement and hire a guide for the voyage to India. Vasco da Gama was given a reception from Shiek of Malindi. The pillar stands to day, though there have been calls by conservationists to take care of it. It is a popular tourist attraction for both local and international tourists. In 1498 Malindi was a town with population of about 6,000. The Arabs were the class with many Africans as well as Indian traders living in the town

20.
Inhambane
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Inhambane, Terra de Boa Gente is a city located in southern Mozambique, lying on Inhambane Bay,470 km northeast of Maputo. It is the capital of the Inhambane Province and according to the 2008 census has a population of 65,837 and it is a sleepy historic town known for its rusting colonial architecture and has been popular with tourists in recent years. The settlement owes its existence to an inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows. Two protective sandy headlands protect the harbor and form a sandbank, the town of Maxixe is located across the bay. Inhambane is one of the oldest settlements on Mozambiques eastern coast, dhows traded here as early as the 11th century. Muslim and Persian traders were the first outsiders to arrive to the area by sea and traded pearls and ambergris, the area became well known for its local cotton spinning and production by the Tonga tribe. Sometime before the Portuguese reached the area, the Karanga had invaded Inhambane and they dominated over the Tonga cotton workers and the rewards of trading with the Muslims went to them. When Vasco da Gama rounded Africa in the late 15th century, he pulled into Inhambane to replenish stocks and he took an immediate liking to the area and named it Terra de Boa Gente or Land of the Good People. In 1505, a ship sent by Francisco de Almeida was shipwrecked south of the town, later, their sons landed on Mozambique Island to survey the situation. The Portuguese eventually established a permanent trading post at settlement in 1534, Inhambane was then chosen as the first Jesuit mission to Southeast Africa in 1560. The port gradually grew as an ivory and slave trading centre and it was destroyed in 1834 by Soshangane, but grew rapidly in the second half of the century as a town of Portuguese East Africa. The old cathedral and old mosque was built during that period, however, in the 20th century the status of the town declined and the economic situation worsened as Maputo became the main centre. The 170-year-old Cathedral of our Lady of Conception is located in the old quarter of the city where a ladder leads to the top of the spire, offering panoramic views of the city. The city is now home to a museum and a market and is known for its beaches of Tofo. The central market located along the main boulevard called simply Mercado Central offers numerous foods, ranging from an array of spices and vegetables to prawns, fishes. Motor and dhow taxis sail from the town to Maxixe, the town of Inhambane has one of the largest working fleets of dhows on the Swahili Coast. Scuba diving in Inhambane is particularly popular in such as Manta Reef. Giant manta rays, whale sharks, turtles and other marine life are regularly seen, many tourists are under the impression that they can dive from Inhambane itself

21.
Mombasa
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Mombasa is a city on the coast of Kenya. It is the countrys second-largest city, after the capital Nairobi and its metropolitan region is the second largest in the country and has a population of approximately two million people. Administratively, Mombasa is the capital of Mombasa County, a regional cultural and economic hub, Mombasa has an extra-large port and an international airport, and is an important regional tourism centre. The city had a population of about 939,000 per the 2009 census and it is located on Mombasa Island and sprawls to the surrounding mainlands. The island is separated from the mainland by two creeks, Tudor Creek and Kilindini Harbour. It is connected to the mainland to the north by the Nyali Bridge, to the south by the Likoni Ferry, the port serves both Kenya and countries of the interior, linking them to the ocean. The city is served by Moi International Airport located in the northwest mainland suburb of Chaani, Mombasa has a cosmopolitan population, with the Swahili people and Mijikenda predominant. Other communities include the Akamba and Taita Bantus as well as a significant population of Luo, the major religions practised in the city are Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. Over the centuries, many immigrants and traders have settled in Mombasa, particularly from the Middle East, Somalia, and the Indian sub-continent, the founding of Mombasa is associated with two rulers, Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita. According to oral history and medieval commentaries, Shehe Mvita superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi, Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim of great learning and so is connected more directly with the present ideals of Swahili culture that people identify with Mombasa. The ancient history associated with Shehe Mvita and the founding of a settlement on Mombasa Island is still linked to present-day peoples living in Mombasa. The Thenashara Taifa Swahili lineages recount this ancient history today and are the keepers of local Swahili traditions, even though today Mombasa is a very heterogeneous cultural mix, families associated with the Twelve Nations are still considered the original inhabitants of the city. Most of the information on Mombasa comes from Portuguese chroniclers writing in the 16th century. In 1331, the famous Moroccan scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta also visited the area during his travels to the Swahili Coast and made mention of the city. He noted that the people of Mombasa were Shãfii Muslims, a people, trustworthy. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built, the exact founding date of the city is unknown, but it has a long history. Kenyan school history books place the founding of Mombasa as 900 A. D and it must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer Al Idrisi mentions it in 1151. During the pre-modern period, Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold and its trade links reached as far as the Indian subcontinent and modern-day China and oral historians today can still recall this period of local history

22.
Pemba Island
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Pemba Island, known as The Green Island in Arabic, is an island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean. With a land area of 988 square kilometres it is situated about 50 kilometres to the north of Unguja, in 1964, Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometres east of mainland Tanzania, across the Pemba Channel, together with Mafia Island, these islands form the Spice Islands. Most of the island, which is hillier and more fertile than Unguja, is dominated by small scale farming, there is also large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves. There is a quite large Arab community on the island, who immigrated from Oman, the population is a mix of Arab and original Waswahili inhabitants of the island. A significant portion of the population identifies as Shirazi people. The most important towns in Pemba are Chake-Chake, Mkoani, and Wete, the centrally located Chake-Chake is perched on a mound with a view to the west on a bay and the tiny Misali Island, where the tides determine when a dhow can enter the local harbour. Pemba is, with the exception of a strip of land along its eastern coast, a fertile place, besides clove trees. Pemba is home to several sites, with steep drop-offs, untouched coral. Pemba has a climate as Tanzanias mainland. With the tropical weather, it can become very hot, the average temperature is usually between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The precipitation is 60-80 inches yearly, the highest precipitation levels are in April and May. The lowest precipitation levels are in November and December, archaeological research on Pemba has shown its centrality to the Swahili coast trading system as early as 600 AD. Along the northern coast, urban settlements at Chwaka later developed and flourished from the century to ~1500 AD. West of Pembas capital Chake-Chake, on a long stretched peninsula called Ras Mkumbuu, east of Chake-Chake one can find the Mkama Ndume ruins at Pujini village within easy reach by road from Chake-Chake. This is the known early fortification on the whole Swahili Coast. According to the Arab geographer Yakut, in the century there were two independent sultans ruling over parts of Pemba Island. On 24 June 2016, the Australian Transport Minister, Darren Chester, said that a piece of debris was found on Pemba Island

23.
Zanzibar
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Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania in East Africa. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres off the coast of the mainland, the capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre is Stone Town, which is a World Heritage Site, the name Zanzibar is apparently derived from the Persian zang-bâr signifying black coast. Zanzibars main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism, in particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzanias Mafia Island, are called the Spice Islands. Zanzibar is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus monkey, the Zanzibar servaline genet, the word Zanzibar came from Arabic Zanjibār, which is in turn from Persian Zang-bār, a compound of Zang + bār. The presence of microlithic tools suggest that it has been home to humans for at least 20,000 years, a Greco-Roman text between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, mentioned the island of Menuthias, which is probably Unguja. Little is known about the history of Zanzibar between the time of the Periplus and the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, from that point forward, wars in Asia and increasing trade motivated Persians, Arabs, and Indians to visit or migrate to Zanzibar. Persian traders used Zanzibar as a base for voyages between the Middle East, India, and Africa and they established garrisons on the islands and built the first Zoroastrian fire temples and mosques in the Southern Hemisphere. The impact of these traders and immigrants on the Swahili culture is uncertain, during the Middle Ages, Zanzibar and other settlements on the Swahili Coast were advanced. The littoral contained a number of autonomous trade cities and these towns grew in wealth as the Bantu Swahili people served as intermediaries and facilitators to local, Arab, Persian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese merchants. This interaction contributed in part to the evolution of the Swahili culture, although a Bantu language, Swahili as a consequence today includes some elements that were borrowed from other civilizations, particularly Arabic loanwords. With the wealth that they had acquired through trade, some of the Arab traders also became rulers of the coastal cities, vasco da Gamas visit in 1498 marked the beginning of European influence. In 1503 or 1504, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese Empire when Captain Ruy Lourenço Ravasco Marques landed and demanded and received tribute from the sultan in exchange for peace, Zanzibar remained a possession of Portugal for almost two centuries. It initially became part of the Portuguese province of Arabia and Ethiopia and was administered by a governor general, around 1571, Zanzibar became part of the western division of the Portuguese empire and was administered from Mozambique. It appears, however, that the Portuguese did not closely administer Zanzibar, the first English ship to visit Unguja, the Edward Bonaventure in 1591, found that there was no Portuguese fort or garrison. The extent of their occupation was a depot where produce was purchased and collected for shipment to Mozambique. In other respects, the affairs of the island were managed by the local king and this hands-off approach ended when Portugal established a fort on Pemba around 1635 in response to the Sultan of Mombasas slaughter of Portuguese residents several years earlier

24.
Grande Comore
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Grande Comore is an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation, most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population as of 2006 is about 316,600, the islands capital is Moroni, which is also the national capital. The island is made up of two volcanoes, with Mount Karthala being the countrys highest point at 2,361 m above sea level. According to the 2009 revision of the constitution of 2002, it is governed by an elected Governor, as are the other islands, the name Ngazidja is sometimes seen in the incorrect form Njazidja. For several centuries, Grande Comore was divided into a number of sultanates, including Bambao, Itsandra, Mitsamihuli, Mbajini, Hambuu, Washili, Hamahame, Mbwankuu, Mbude, the sultans were also known as mfaume. In 1886, the ruler of Bambao, Sultan Said Ali bin Said Omar declared a state of Ngazidja, usurping the other sultanates, in 1893, Sultan Said Ali was sent into exile on Réunion. In 1908, France annexed the island and the sultanates were abolished, in 1975, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli declared independence as the nation of Comoros. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 crashed off the coast of Grande Comore on November 23,1996, in 1997, the Comoros nation began to fall apart as Anjouan and Moheli seceded. Grande Comore became the island under federal control. By 2002, however, Grande Comore was reunited with the islands under the new constitution. Abdou Soule Elbak was elected President of Grande Comore in May 2002 and he received only 17% of the vote in the first round, coming in first place, and received 60% of the vote in the runoff. He remained in his post until the July 2007 elections, at which point Mohamed Abdoulwahab won the islands presidency, prince Said Ibrahim International Airport serves the island. Media related to Grande Comore at Wikimedia Commons Comoros Island election information

25.
Mozambique Island
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The Island of Mozambique lies off northern Mozambique, between the Mozambique Channel and Mossuril Bay, and is part of Nampula Province. Prior to 1898, it was the capital of colonial Portuguese East Africa, with its rich history and sandy beaches, the Island of Mozambique is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Mozambiques fastest growing tourist destinations. It has a permanent population of approximately 14,000 people and is served by nearby Lumbo Airport on the Nampula mainland, the island was a major Arab port and boat building center in the years before Vasco da Gama visited in 1498. The name of the island is derived from Ali Musa Mbiki and this name was subsequently taken to the mainland country which is modern-day Mozambique, and the island was renamed Ilha de Moçambique. The Portuguese established a port and naval base in 1507 and built the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte in 1522, during the 16th century, the Fort São Sebastião was built, and the Portuguese settlement became the capital of Portuguese East Africa. The island also became an important missionary centre and it withstood Dutch attacks in 1607 and 1608 and remained a major post for the Portuguese on their trips to India. It saw the trading of slaves, spices, and gold, apart from the ancient fortifications, only half of the town is stone-built. The hospital, a majestic neo-classical building constructed in 1877 by the Portuguese, with a garden decorated with ponds, for many years, it was the biggest hospital south of the Sahara. With the opening of the Suez Canal, the islands fortunes waned, in 1898, the capital was moved to Lourenço Marques on the mainland. By the middle of the 20th century, the new harbour of Nacala took most of the remaining business, the island, now entirely urbanised, is also home to several mosques and a Hindu temple. A3 km bridge was erected in the 1960s to connect it to the mainland, the island in itself is not very big, about 3 km long and between 200 and 500 metres wide. Most historical buildings are at the northern end. The majority of the live in reed houses in Makuti Town at the southern end of the island. The island is close to two tourist highlights Chocas Mar, a long beach about 40 km north of Ilha de Moçambique across the Mossuril Bay. Ferreira, Ilha de Moçambique byna Hollands, Portuguese inbesitname, Nederlandse veroweringspogings en die opbloei en verval van Mosambiek-eiland, gordonsbaai & Jeffreysbaai, Adamastor,2010 Malyn Newitt, Mozambique Island, The Rise and Decline of an East African Coastal City, 1500–1700. Ilha de Mozambique travel guide from Wikivoyage World Heritage Site Website managed by the Community Multimedia Center of the Ilha de Mozambique

26.
Mozambique Channel
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The Mozambique Channel is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about 1,600 km long and 419 km across at its narrowest point, a warm current, the Mozambique Current, flows in a southward direction in the channel, leading into the Agulhas Current off the east coast of South Africa. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Mozambique Channel as follows, a line from the estuary of the River Rovuma to Ras Habu, the Northern point of Ile Grande Comore, the Northern of the Comore Islands, to Cap dAmbre the Northern extremity of Madagascar. A line from Cap Sainte-Marie, the Southern extreme of Madagascar to Ponto do Ouro on the mainland. Despite being defined as the South African coast by the IHO, japanese Submarines at Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel Beach, Chandler B. ed. Mozambique Channel. Chicago, F. E. Compton and Co

27.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west

28.
Barawa
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Barawa, also known as Brava, is a port town in the southwestern Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. In 1840, soldiers of the Bardheere Jamaa took the city under siege while attempting to discover a more direct sea route, and inflicted much damage. The towns inhabitants pleaded with Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim of the Geledi Sultanate for protection, with the Sultans troops then invading Bardera and burned the city to the ground. The city, however, like the rest of the Benadir coast, was not under Zanzibari control but under Gobroon and Bimal rule, therefore making the Italian-Zanzibar agreement null and void. The Italians faced stiff resistance from parts of the Benadir coast, and its inland regions. Sheikh Uways al-Barawi organized an Ikhwaan and led the Banadir revolt, Italians developed Brava in the 1920s and 1930s, the first thing they did was to abolish slavery. Then they created the first sewage of the city and established a small hospital, in Brava there was a small school in the late 1930s, the first public elementary school in southern Banadir. In September of the year, a United States military raid in the area killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, in October 2013, United States Navy SEAL Team Six also launched an unsuccessful raid against a beachside house in Barawa, targeting Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, then leader of Al-Shabaab. Following the unsuccessful raid, al-Shabab began a crack down of the town, following the launch of Operation Indian Ocean, the Somali Armed Forces assisted by AMISOM troops re-seized control of Barawa from Al-Shabaab in October 2014. On October 11, during a trip to Barawe President Hassan banned charcoal trade in the city, Barawa has a population of around 32,800 inhabitants. The broader Barawa District has a population of 57,652 residents. The towns traditional inhabitants are the Tunni clan of the Somali people as well as the Bravanese, in addition to Standard Somali, the Tunni speak Af-Tunni and the Bravanese speak Chimwiini. A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar, In the Beginning of Sixteenth century

29.
Cape Correntes
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Cape Correntes is a cape or headland in the Inhambane Province in Mozambique. It is named after the exceptionally fast southward current that passes here, part of the Mozambique Current and it is also a confluence point of winds, with the capacity to produce unpredictably violent gusts and whirlwinds. Medieval dhows of the Kilwa Sultanate rarely sailed below it, thereby making Cape Correntes the southern boundary of the Swahili Coast, local legends said the cape was inhabited by mermaids that lured unfortunate sailors to their deaths. It is estimated that 30% of the ships lost in the yearly Portuguese India Armadas in the 16th and 17th centuries capsized around Cape Correntes, ascensão e Declínio da Carreira da Índia, Vasco da Gama e a Índia, Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian,1999, vol. Retrieved from the internet 2003 Theal, George McCall The Beginning of South African History

30.
Swahili culture
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Swahili culture is the culture of the Swahili people inhabiting the Swahili Coast. This littoral area encompasses Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, as well as the adjacent islands of Zanzibar and Comoros and some parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and they speak Swahili as their native language, which belongs to the Niger-Congo family. Swahili culture is the product of the history of the part of the African Great Lakes region. As with the Swahili language, Swahili culture has a Bantu core that has borrowed from foreign influences, the most recent excavations at these coastal sites have been used to examine the spread of Islam in East Africa and the development of the Swahili culture. However, the identity of the Swahili, as well as, the associated with. Conversely, it has stated that the sites were founded by Arab or Persian colonists. Increased contact with the Islamic would then lead to the integration of local African and Arab traditions, yet, a blend of these two interpretations exists with accounts of Arab merchants marrying local women, which created a distinctive Arab-African Swahili culture. The culture appears to have emerged in Kenya and Tanzania and eventually spread to Mozambique, the early Swahili city-states followed Islam and were cosmopolitan and politically independent of each other. The chief exports of these cultures were salt, slaves, ebony, gold, ivory and these city-states began to decline towards the sixteenth century, mainly as a consequence of the Portugueses advent. Eventually, Swahili trading centers went out of business and commerce between Africa and Asia on the Indian Ocean collapsed, aspects of Swahili culture are diverse due to its many influences. For example, Swahili cuisine has influences from Indian and Arabic cultures, there are also alterations to certain dishes due to religious reasons. Some food items common in everyday lives of the Swahili are fish, tropical fruits, historic Swahili culture was intensely urban and dominated by a strict class structure. Another cultural aspect of the Swahili is their use of arts and crafts, when creating art, they express themselves through creativity as well as through shape and function. Some multicultural influences can be seen in Swahili art, furniture and they do not often use designs with images of living beings due to their Muslim heritage. Instead, Swahili designs are primarily geometric, there are important clothes that are part of their arts and crafts such as the Kanga. The Kanga is not only a piece of cloth but is an artifact of the Swahili culture. The cloth should be made with extreme care, if the cloth doesn’t match the season then it doesn’t deserve to be a Kanga and can be used as a baby diaper or an apron for the kitchen. Even though the Kanga is quite cheap, it is still a part of Swahili culture

31.
Kafir
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Kafir is an Arabic term meaning unbeliever, or disbeliever. The word is derived from the Arabic term kafir, which originally had the one without religion. Arab Traders adopted the term to refer to non-Muslim people, variations of the word were used in English, Dutch, and, later, in Afrikaans. In Portuguese, in French and in Spanish, the equivalent cafre was used and it is used as a derogatory term. Kafir is sometimes used interchangeably with mushrik, another type of religious wrongdoer mentioned frequently in the Quran, the practice of declaring another self-professed Muslim a kafir is known as takfir. The word kāfir is the active participle of the root K-F-R, as a pre-Islamic term it described farmers burying seeds in the ground. One of its applications in the Quran is also the meaning as farmer. Since farmers cover the seeds with soil while planting, the word implies a person who hides or covers. Ideologically, it implies a person who hides or covers the truth, poets personify the darkness of night as kâfir, perhaps as a survival of pre-Islamic religious or mythological usage. The noun for disbelief, blasphemy, impiety rather than the person who disbelieves, is kufr, the Hebrew words kipper and kofer share the same root as kafir כִּפֵּר, or K-F-R. Kipper has many meanings including, to deny, atone for, cover, purge, represent, the last two meanings involve kofer that mean ransom. Kipper and kofer are mostly likely used together in the Jewish faith to indicate Gods transfer of guilt from innocent parties using guilty parties as ransom, the practice of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir. Kufr unbelief and shirk are used throughout the Quran and sometimes used interchangeably by Muslims, according to Salafist scholars, Kufr is the denial of the Truth, and shirk means devoting acts of worship to anything beside Allah or the worship of idols and other created beings. So a mushrik may worship other things while also acknowledging Allah, the distinction between those who believe in Islam and those who do not is an essential one in the Quran, the book of Islam. Kafir, and its plural kafirun, is used directly 134 times in Quran, its verbal noun kufr is used 37 times, and the verbal cognates of kafir are used about 250 times. By extension of the meaning of the root, to cover. The meaning of disbelief, which has come to be regarded as primary, in the Quranic discourse, the term typifies all things that are unacceptable and offensive to God. According to the E. J. Brills First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 4, the term first applied in the Quran to unbelieving Meccans, who endeavoured to refute and revile the Prophet

32.
Millet
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Millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Millets are important crops in the tropics of Asia and Africa. The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, millets are indigenous to many parts of the world. The most widely grown millet is pearl millet, which is an important crop in India, Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in Asia and they have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years. Consumption of the minor millets has been practiced since the beginning of the ancient civilizations of the world, generally, the millets are small-grained, annual, warm-weather cereals belonging to grass family. They are highly tolerant of extreme conditions such as drought and are nutritious compared to the major cereals such as rice. They contain low phytic acid and are rich in fiber, iron, calcium. Moreover, these millets release sugar slowly in the blood and also diminish the glucose absorption, major millets are the most widely cultivated species. Eragrostideae tribe, Eleusine coracana, Finger millet - the fourth-most cultivated millet, paniceae tribe, Panicum miliaceum, Proso millet - the third-most cultivated millet. Pennisetum glaucum, Pearl millet - the most cultivated millet, setaria italica, Foxtail millet - the second-most cultivated millet. Jobs tears - of minor importance as a crop, eragrostideae tribe, Eragrostis tef, Teff - often not considered to be a millet. White fonio, Black fonio, Raishan, Polish millet - of minor importance as a crop, Japanese barnyard millet, Indian barnyard millet, Burgu millet, Common barnyard grass. Collectively, the members of this genus are called barnyard grasses or barnyard millets, other common names to identify these seeds include Jhangora, Samo seeds or Morio / Mario / Moraiaya seeds. Panicum sumatrense, Little millet Paspalum scrobiculatum, Kodo millet Urochloa ramosa, guinea millet Foxtail Millet is known to have been the first domesticated millet. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of millet to Shennong, the legendary Emperor of China, millets also formed important parts of the prehistoric diet in Indian, Chinese Neolithic and Korean Mumun societies. Broomcorn and foxtail millet were important crops beginning in the Early Neolithic of China, for example, some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at Cishan. Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 6500 BC, a 4, 000-year-old well-preserved bowl containing well-preserved noodles made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet was found at the Lajia archaeological site in China

33.
Rice
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Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy

34.
Kenya
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Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community. Its capital and largest city is Nairobi and it is bordered by Tanzania to the south and southwest, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers 581,309 km2, and had a population of approximately 48 million people in January 2017, Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya. Further inland are highlands in Central and Rift Valley regions where tea, in the West are Nyanza and Western regions, there is an equatorial, hot and dry climate which becomes humid around Lake Victoria, the largest tropical fresh-water lake in the world. This gives way to temperate and forested areas in the neighbouring western region. The north-eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes, Kenya is known for its world class athletes in track and field and rugby. The African Great Lakes region, which Kenya is a part of, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period, by the first millennium AD, the Bantu expansion had reached the area from West-Central Africa. Bantu and Nilotic populations together constitute around 97% of the nations residents, European and Arab presence in coastal Mombasa dates to the Early Modern period, European exploration of the interior began in the 19th century. The British Empire established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which starting in 1920 gave way to the Kenya Colony, Kenya obtained independence in December 1963. Following a referendum in August 2010 and adoption of a new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties, the capital, Nairobi, is a regional commercial hub. The economy of Kenya is the largest by GDP in East, agriculture is a major employer, the country traditionally exports tea and coffee and has more recently begun to export fresh flowers to Europe. The service industry is also an economic driver. Additionally, Kenya is a member of the East African Community trading bloc, the Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya. The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa, if so, then the British may not so much have mispronounced it, as misspelled it. In the 19th century, the German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf was staying with the Bantu Kamba people when he first spotted the mountain. On asking for the name of the mountain, he was told Kĩ-Nyaa or Kĩĩma- Kĩĩnyaa probably because the pattern of black rock, the Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga in Kikuyu, which is quite similar to the Kamba name. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia believed by most to be a corruption of the Kamba version, others say that this was—on the contrary—a very precise notation of a correct African pronunciation /ˈkɛnjə/

35.
Mozambique
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It is separated from Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans, the area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonised by Portugal from 1505. The country was an important place where Somali merchants enslaved the local population, after over four centuries of Portuguese rule, Mozambique gained independence in 1975, becoming the Peoples Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992, in 1994, Mozambique held its first multiparty elections and has remained a relatively stable presidential republic. However, since 2013, following more than 20 years of peace, Mozambique is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world. Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources, the countrys economy is based largely on agriculture, but industry is growing, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, and aluminium and petroleum production. The countrys tourism sector is also growing, South Africa is Mozambiques main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain are also among the countrys most important economic partners, since 2001, Mozambiques annual average GDP growth has been among the worlds highest. However, the ranks among the lowest in GDP per capita, human development, measures of inequality. The only official language of Mozambique is Portuguese, which is mostly as a second language by about half of the population. Common native languages include Makhuwa, Sena, and Swahili, the countrys population of around 24 million is composed overwhelmingly of Bantu people. The largest religion in Mozambique is Christianity, with significant minorities following Islam, the island-town was the capital of the Portuguese colony until 1898, when it was moved south to Lourenço Marques. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, waves of Bantu-speaking people migrated from the west and north through the Zambezi River valley and then gradually into the plateau and they established agricultural communities or societies based on herding cattle. They brought with them the technology for smelting and smithing iron, from the late first millennium AD, vast Indian Ocean trade networks extended as far south into Mozambique as the ancient port town of Chibuene. Connections are evident at sites including Manyikeni for 11–14th century ties with the inland Great Zimbabwe kingdoms, from about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts displaced the Arabic commercial and military hegemony, becoming regular ports of call on the new European sea route to the east. The voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 marked the Portuguese entry into trade, politics, the Portuguese attempted to legitimise and consolidate their trade and settlement positions through the creation of prazos tied to Portuguese settlement and administration. Historically within Mozambique there was slavery, Human beings were bought and sold by African tribal chiefs, Arab Muslim traders and Portuguese and other European traders as well

36.
Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, although it does not border Namibia, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates it from that country. The capital and largest city is Harare, a country of roughly 13 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most commonly used. Since the 11th century, present-day Zimbabwe has been the site of several organised states and kingdoms as well as a route for migration. The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes first demarcated the present territory during the 1890s, in 1965, the conservative white minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. Zimbabwe then rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations—which it withdrew from in 2003 and it is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU-PF party won the following the end of white minority rule. Under Mugabes authoritarian regime, the security apparatus has dominated the country. Mugabe has maintained the revolutionary socialist rhetoric from the Cold War era, the name Zimbabwe stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, an ancient ruined city in the countrys south-east whose remains are now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word, many sources hold that Zimbabwe derives from dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as large houses of stone. The Karanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the province of Masvingo. Zimbabwe was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia, a further alternative, put forward by nationalists in Matabeleland, had been Matopos, referring to the Matopos Hills to the south of Bulawayo. In a 2001 interview, black nationalist Edson Zvobgo recalled that Mawema mentioned the name during a rally, and it caught hold. The black nationalist factions subsequently used the name the during the Second Chimurenga campaigns against the Rhodesian government during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1964-1979, major factions in this camp included the Zimbabwe African National Union, and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. Proto-Shona-speaking societies first emerged in the middle Limpopo valley in the 9th century before moving on to the Zimbabwean highlands, the Zimbabwean plateau eventually became the centre of subsequent Shona states, beginning around the 10th century. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Arab merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, the main archaeological site uses a unique dry stone architecture. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first in a series of sophisticated trade states developed in Zimbabwe by the time of the first European explorers from Portugal and they traded in gold, ivory, and copper for cloth and glass. From about 1300 until 1600, Mapungubwe was eclipsed by the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and this Shona state further refined and expanded upon Mapungubwes stone architecture, which survives to this day at the ruins of the kingdoms capital of Great Zimbabwe

37.
Coconut
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The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra

38.
Dhow
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Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Historians are divided as to whether the dhow was invented by Arabs or Indians, larger dhows have crews of approximately thirty, smaller ones typically around twelve. The exact origins of the dhow are lost to history, most scholars believe that it originated in India between 600 BC to 600 AD Some claim that the sambuk, a type of dhow, may be derived from the Portuguese caravel. The Yemeni Hadhrami people, as well as Omanis, for centuries came to Beypore, in Kerala and this was because of the good timber in the Kerala forests, the availability of good coir rope, and the skilled carpenters who specialized in ship building. In former times, the planks of a dhows hull were held together by coconut rope. Beypore dhows are known as Uru in Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Settlers from Yemen, known as Baramis, are active in making urus in Kerala. In the 1920s, British writers identified Al Hudaydah as the center for dhow building and those built in Al Hudaydah were smaller in size, and used for travel along the coasts. They were constructed of found in Yemen. Even to the present day, dhows make commercial journeys between the Persian Gulf and East Africa using sails as their means of propulsion. Their cargo is mostly dates and fish to East Africa and mangrove timber to the lands in the Persian Gulf and they often sail south with the monsoon in winter or early spring, and back again to Arabia in late spring or early summer. For celestial navigation, dhow sailors have used the kamal. The latter is a device that determines latitude by finding the angle of the Pole Star above the horizon. Baghlah – from the Arabic language word for mule, a heavy ship, the traditional deep-sea dhow. Baqarah or baggarah – from the Arabic word for cow, old type of small dhow similar to the Battil. Battil – featured long stems topped by large, club-shaped stem heads, badan – a smaller vessel requiring a shallow draft. Boum or dhangi – a large-sized dhow with a stern that is tapering in shape, the Arab boum has a very high prow, which is trimmed in the Indian version. Ghanjah or kotiya – a large vessel, similar to the Baghlah, with a curved stem, a fishing or trading dhow with a broad hull similar to the Jalibut, common in Lamu Island and the coast of Oman

39.
Coir
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Coir, or coconut fibre, is a natural fibre extracted from the husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes and mattresses. Coir is the material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir are in upholstery padding, sacking, white coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, string, rope and fishing nets. The English word coir comes from the Malayalam and Tamil word kayar, ropes and cordage have been made from coconut fibre since ancient times. Indian navigators who sailed the seas to Malaya, Java, China, arab writers of the 11th century AD referred to the extensive use of coir for ship ropes and rigging. A coir industry in the UK was recorded before the half of the 19th century. Coir fibres are found between the hard, internal shell and the coat of a coconut. The individual fibre cells are narrow and hollow, with walls made of cellulose. They are pale when immature, but later become hardened and yellowed as a layer of lignin is deposited on their walls, each cell is about 1 mm long and 10 to 20 µm in diameter. Fibres are typically 10 to 30 centimetres long, the two varieties of coir are brown and white. Brown coir harvested from fully ripened coconuts is thick, strong and has high abrasion resistance and it is typically used in mats, brushes and sacking. Mature brown coir fibres contain more lignin and less cellulose than fibres such as flax and cotton, so are stronger, white coir fibres harvested from coconuts before they are ripe are white or light brown in color and are smoother and finer, but also weaker. They are generally spun to make yarn used in mats or rope, the coir fibre is relatively waterproof, and is one of the few natural fibres resistant to damage by saltwater. Fresh water is used to process brown coir, while seawater and it must not be confused with coir pith, or formerly cocopeat, which is the powdery material resulting from the processing of the coir fibre. Coir fibre is locally named coprah in some countries, adding to the confusion, green coconuts, harvested after about six to 12 months on the palm, contain pliable white fibres. Brown fibre is obtained by harvesting fully mature coconuts when the nutritious layer surrounding the seed is ready to be processed into copra, the fibrous layer of the fruit is then separated from the hard shell by driving the fruit down onto a spike to split it. A well-seasoned husker can manually separate 2,000 coconuts per day, machines are now available which crush the whole fruit to give the loose fibres. These machines can process up to 2,000 coconuts per hour, the fibrous husks are soaked in pits or in nets in a slow-moving body of water to swell and soften the fibres

40.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia

41.
Monsoon
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Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes used for locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons, the inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated. The south-west monsoon winds are called Nairutya Maarut in India, the English monsoon came from Portuguese monção, ultimately from Arabic mawsim and/or Hindi mausam, perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monsun. Strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian sub-continent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to climate change. A study of marine plankton suggested that the Indian Monsoon strengthened around 5 million years ago, then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in the Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean and it is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma,1.83 Ma,0.68 Ma,0.45 Ma and 0.04 Ma were identified which showed a weakening of Leeuwin Current. The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature field in the Indian Ocean, thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. The impact of monsoon on the weather is different from place to place. In some places there is just a likelihood of having a more or less rain. In other places, quasi semi-deserts are turned into green grasslands where all sorts of plants. The Indian Monsoon turns large parts of India from a kind of semi-desert into green lands, see photos only taken 3 months apart in the Western Ghats. In places like this it is crucial for farmers to have the right timing for putting the seeds on the fields, Monsoons are large-scale sea breezes which occur when the temperature on land is significantly warmer or cooler than the temperature of the ocean. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways, in contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities, and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at an even temperature

42.
Vizier
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A vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister. In modern usage, the term has been used for ministers in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, East Africa Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is also used in the only absolute Asian monarchy. It is given to the current King Hassanal Bolkiahs second brother, in Brunei, an ordinary vizier is known as Pengiran Temenggong. The word entered into English in 1562 from the Turkish vezir, Wazir itself has two possible etymologies, The most accepted etymology is that it is derived from the Arabic wazara, from the Semitic root W-Z-R. The word is mentioned in the Quran, where Aaron is described as the wazir of Moses, on the other hand, the presence of a Middle Persian word vizīr or vicīr, cognate to the Avestan vīcira, meaning decreer or arbitrator, could possibly indicate an Indo-European origin. In modern Turkey, there is no usage of vezir for any ministry as suggested in the description above, the Muslim office of vizier, which spread from the Persians, Turks, Arabs and Mongols and neighboring peoples, arose under the first Abbasid caliphs. The vizier stood between sovereign and subjects, representing the former in all matters touching the latter, if one such vizier is the prime minister, he may hold the title of Grand Vizier or another title. In Al-Andalus appointed by the Caliph of Cordoba, similarly in many of the emirates and sultanates of the taifas which the caliphate was broken up into. In Muslim Egypt, the most populous Arab country, Under the Fatimid Caliphs. Again since the end of Ottoman rule, remarkably since 1857 (i. e. before the last Wali, Ismail Pasha, was raised Khedive. During the days of the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Vizier was the—often de facto minister, second only to the Sultan and was the leader of the Divan. Vizier was also the title of some Ottoman provincial governors, use of the title indicating a greater degree of autonomy for the province involved. In the Sherifian kingdom of Morocco, a Sadr al-Azam was in office until 22 November 1955, Grand Vizier, Chief Minister or Prime Minister. Wazir al-Amala, Minister for the Interior, Wazir al-Bahr, Minister of the Sea, i. e. for the Navy/ Marine. Wazir al-Harb, Minister for the Army or Minister for War, Wazir al-Qalam, Minister of the Pen. In Oman the Hami/Sultans Chief minister was styled Wazir till 1966, Viziers to the Sultans of Zanzibar, since 1890 filled by British, also known as First ministers, the British Resident s, an extremely direct form of indirect rule. Grand Viziers to the Sultan of Sokoto – this is however disputed, the title Waziri is apparently a derivative of this word, and is a highly regarded chieftaincy title in most of northern Nigeria

43.
Emir
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An Emir, sometimes transliterated Amir, Amier, or Ameer, is an aristocratic or noble title of high office used in a variety of places in the Arab countries and Afghanistan. It means commander, general, or prince, when translated as prince, the word emirate is analogous to a sovereign principality. Amir, meaning Lord or commander-in-chief, is derived from the Arabic root a-m-r, the word entered English in 1593, from the French émir. It was one of the titles or names of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the monarchs of UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are currently titled Emirs. All members of the House of Saud have the title of Emir, the caliphs first used the title Amir al-Muminin or Commander of the Faithful, stressing their leadership over the Islamic Empire, especially over the militia. The title has been assumed by various other Muslim rulers, including Sultans, for Shia Muslims, they still give this title to the Caliph Ali as Amir al Muminin. Note that the title was held by Christians as well, the word Emir is also used less formally for leaders in certain contexts. For example, the leader of a group of pilgrims to Mecca is called an Emir hadji, where an adjectival form is necessary, Emiral suffices. Amirzade, the son of a prince, hence the Persian princely title Mirza, the temporal leader of the Yazidi people is known as an Emir or Prince. From the start, Emir has been a military title, in certain decimally-organized Muslim armies, Amir was an officer rank. For example, in Mughal India Amirs commanded 1000 horsemen, ten of them under one Malik, Muhammad Amin Bughra, Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra, and Abdullah Bughra declared themselves Emirs of the First East Turkestan Republic. Amir is a name in the Persian language and a prefix name for many masculine names such as Amir Ali. Amir-i-Iel designates the head of an Il in imperial Persia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the female name Emira, often interpreted as princess, is a derivative of the male name Emir. Abdul Abulbul Amir, both character and song, wat Tambor in Star Wars, Episode II – Attack of the Clones took the title of Emir. In the Star Wars universe the title may relate to Tambors military command, Emir Karim, a character in Wild At Heart, a Latin American drama. Specific emirates of note List of emirs of Harar List of emirs of Kuwait List of emirs of Qatar List of Emirs of Mosul Emirate of Afghanistan

44.
Vasco da Gama
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Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India was the first to link Europe and Asia by a route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and, in this way, the West. Da Gamas discovery of the sea route to India was significant and opened the way for an age of global imperialism, traveling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. After decades of trying to reach the Indies, with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks. Unopposed access to the Indian spice routes boosted the economy of the Portuguese Empire, the spices obtained from Southeast Asia were primarily pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe. Portugal maintained a monopoly of these commodities for several decades. Da Gama led two of the Portuguese armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the latter was the largest and departed for India four years after his return from the first one. For his contributions, Da Gama was appointed the Governor of India in 1524, under the title of Viceroy, Vasco da Gama remains a leading figure in the history of exploration. Numerous homages have been made worldwide to celebrate his explorations and accomplishments, the Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas, was written in his honour. His first trip to India is widely considered a milestone in world history, in March 2016, researchers announced that thousands of artifacts and vessel remains had been recovered from the ship Esmeralda, one of Da Gamas armada, found off the coast of Oman. Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, occupied chiefly by fisherfolk. Vasco da Gamas father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand and he rose in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed alcaide-mór of Sines in the 1460s, Estêvão da Gama married Isabel Sodré, a daughter of João Sodré, scion of a well-connected family of English origin. Her father and her brothers, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, had links to the household of Infante Diogo, Duke of Viseu, and were prominent figures in the military Order of Christ. Vasco da Gama was the third of five sons of Estêvão da Gama and Isabel Sodré – in order of age, Paulo da Gama, João Sodré, Vasco da Gama, Pedro da Gama, Vasco also had one known sister, Teresa da Gama. Little is known of da Gamas early life, the Portuguese historian Teixeira de Aragão suggests that he studied at the inland town of Évora, which is where he may have learned mathematics and navigation. It has been claimed that he studied under Abraham Zacuto, an astrologer and astronomer, around 1480, da Gama followed his father and joined the Order of Santiago. The master of Santiago was Prince John, who ascended to the throne in 1481 as King John II of Portugal, John II doted on the Order, and the da Gamas prospects rose accordingly

45.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety

46.
Portuguese India Armadas
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The Carreira da Índia was the sea route and trade between the Kingdom of Portugal and India around the Cape of Good Hope, first opened by Vasco da Gama in 1497–99. The armadas da Índia were organized by the crown and dispatched on an annual basis, between 1497 and 1650, there were 1033 departures of ships at Lisbon for the Carreira da Índia. Each leg of the voyage took six months. The critical determinant of the timing was the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean, the monsoon was a southwesterly wind in the Summer and then abruptly reversed itself and became a northeasterly in the Winter. The ideal timing was to catch the summer monsoon to India. The India armada typically left Lisbon in the early Spring and that would bring it to the Cape of Good Hope around June–July, and to the East African middle coast by August, just in time to catch the summer monsoon winds to India. Arrival in India was usually around early September, overall, the round trip took a little over a year. The critical step was ensuring the armada reached East Africa on time, ships that failed to reach the equator latitude on the East African coast by late August would be stuck in Africa and have to wait until next Spring to undertake an Indian Ocean crossing. And then they would have to wait in India until the Winter to begin their return, so any delay in East Africa during those critical few weeks of August could end up adding an entire extra year to a ships journey. The circumnavigation of Madagascar opened a route to get to India. While the outer route did not have the support of African staging posts and important watering stops, Return fleets were a different story. The principal worry of the fleets was the fast dangerous waters of the inner Mozambican channel. In the initial decades, the return fleet set out from Cochin in December. January 20 was the date, after which all return fleets were obliged to follow the outer route which was deemed calmer and safer for their precious cargo. That meant they missed the important watering stop on Mozambique island on the leg and had to put in elsewhere later. Between 1525 and 1579, all return fleets were ordered to follow the outer route and this rule was temporarily suspended between the 1570s and 1590s. From 1615, a new rule was introduced whereby return fleets from Goa were allowed to use the inner route, but return fleets from Cochin still had to use the outer route. With the entry of Dutch and English competition in the 1590s, arrival times in Portugal varied, usually between mid-June and late August

A sixteenth-century Portuguese map of Monomotapa lying in the interior of southern Africa.

Towers of Great Zimbabwe.

Baptism of king Siti of Mutapa by workshop of Tomasz Muszyński, 1683, Dominican Monastery in Lublin. The baptism of Siti Kazurukamusapa was celebrated by João de Mello on 4th August 1652, the feast day of St Dominic.